WILDs without prior sleep TUTORIAL
INTRO
This is the type of WILD that everybody attempts when they first find out about lucid dreaming because of the sheer excitement. They read through their first WILD guide and they're intoxicated by the thought of living dreams every night for the rest of their life now that they've stumbled onto this 'secret'.
Little do they know....haha.
And before you read on, this is NOT a guide on how to get the perfect lucid every night without having to wake up in the middle of the night. This is merely my contribution to those who do want to learn from my technique.
Well first a little about me, so you know where this is coming from. I'm a natural lucid dreamer (lucky me) and my first was at about five. My dream recall was so awful back then however, the occasional lucid dream (I naturally have them about once a month without trying at all) was never a focus for me. However, come third or fourth grade, as I was kinda discovering the internet, I found out that other people were having the same experiences! And did exactly what I mentioned in the introduction. Wasting two to three hours a night lying exactly still trying to stop my damned mouth from salivating, dying to get that itch behind my ear, fighting to stay conscious.
But then results. After years and years I finally was able to consistently (well, sort of, but we'll get there later) WILD the second I went to bed night, without prior sleep.
First, the pros and cons of this method:
PROS
- no need for WBTB, just into bed, and go
- convenience
CONS
- clarity and stability is really hard to attain
- dream recall suffers as such
- can take anywhere from fifteen minutes to a few hours (though if you follow my instructions, should be the former)
- 'streaky' consistency (more on this later)
And finally the tutorial itself:
1: MENTALITY
I know, I know, every tutorial everywhere pushes this, and it seems like a small thing but it is very VERY important. In fact, this is most of the foundation for this technique and cannot be done without confidence. This is why this method tends to work in 'streaks'. After one successful WILD the next couple nights are easy as pie when you're riding off the confidence of the last lucid. But once the streak breaks, you've got to get that confidence back. So when you attempt the first lucid, you've really got to believe you're awesome at this. This is honestly probably the hardest part of the procedure so once you've got this down, it's shouldn't be too hard.
2: PRE-TECHNIQUE
Something that people often forget when they attempt to lucid dream is that dreaming tends to require oh...I don't know....SLEEP. They attempt the technique, fully focused on the whole, staying still, aiming for SP and they forget to actually let themselves FALL ASLEEP. Now, this is easier said than done obviously and requires a lot of relaxation. The best way to achieve this I think, is to find that perfect level of sleepyness. Experiment on some free nights on how sleepy you are when you go to bed. If you find that juuuussstt right spot, the procedure really can take less than fifteen minutes.
3: TECHNIQUE
Funnily enough, the technique section here is probably the least important. I've toyed with who knows how many different little techniques over the years and I've really found that the previous two sections are infinitely more useful, no matter the specific technique. However, I will list a couple that I've found to be particularly handy. These are kind of compiled from years of personal research and lurking amongst these here forums so you may have seen tidbits elsewhere.
My procedure:
a. I lay down and just get comfortable. I just act as if I'm going to sleep. Standard rolling and shifting to get comfortable.
b. When I feel like I'm getting to close to my 'level' I lay on my back, arms to my side. It doesn't really matter if any limbs are touching.
c. I focus on the back of my eyelids (if you can feel strain, you're focusing too hard)
d. I begin to focus on my breathing. I find this part most effective. I count from 1 to 10, a number for every breath I inhale. When I get to 10, I go back to 1 and start over. A little trick I learned in a monastery in southern Taiwan that the resident monks used for meditation. (although I'm sure it's used elsewhere) It takes very little concentration so that you can fall asleep, but paying attention to having to go back to 1, rather than continue on to 11 keeps you conscious. Something I tacked on my self is to imagine yourself sinking into the mattress with every exhalation. Most of the the time I feel the center of my body begin to feel heavier first and then my extremities begin to succumb to sleep paralysis.
e. This is the crucial turning point for me. When I enter sleep paralysis I tend to have a hard time bringing it into an actual dream. At this point, if it works, then yay! However if it doesn't, it won't work no matter how hard I try for the rest of the night and I just concede and hope for a DILD. It's here that really takes the practice. Just like it takes practice to learn the nuances of movement and thought in a sport, you just have to experience this moment time and time again to get a feel for what's going to get you that dream. Too much consciousness and I end up pulling out of SP. Too little and I just fall asleep.
f. As I mentioned before, once you actually make it in, dreams as achieved by this technique tend to be very difficult to stabilize. I suggest you look at the scores of guides for stabilization. This part also just takes practice and experience.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope it's helpful in some way shape or form. If even one person takes something positive away from this, I'll be happy (:
I'd really like to get some feedback on how this is working for other people too, so if you try it and get good or bad results, put em here. Happy dreaming!
